We spend most of our Caribbean time at Cow Wreck Beach on Anegada. We built a cottage there
in 2007 that we call "Hidden Treasure".
We now call Cow Wreck Beach our real home, and we commute to Texas to work.

Anegada has it all - wonderful people, our best
friends, beautiful beaches, and great fishing. When we are on-island, we operate the Anegada WebCam when we have the time and internet
connectivity. The WebCam is usually positioned at Hidden Treasure, but (thanks to wireless
internet), we occasionally take it out to some other really fun places. Check it out to
see a bit of life on Anegada!

Over the years, we have really
enjoyed bareboating in the Caribbean, particularly the
British Virgin Islands. There are very few pleasures that can compare to spending a
vacation on a sailing yacht in the beautiful blue waters of the BVI. To us, the best
sailing vacations are the ones with the minimum planning, itinerary-wise. We decide where
we would like to go on a day-to-day basis, simply waking up and seeing where the day takes
us. Once we reach our destination for the day, we kick back and enjoy some rum, or some
windsurfing, snorkeling, or scuba diving. At night we enjoy some of the best food in the
world. Provisioning for us is easy - rum, fruit juice and Carib Lager. We are not the type of
bareboaters that spend a lot of time cooking on the boat....

Bareboating is
how we discovered Anegada. Walker's first bareboating trip was in 1987. He spent one night
anchored at Anegada and met Lowell Wheatley. Many, many
return trips to Anegada in the ensuing years deepened his love for the island. Walker now
has a map of Anegada tattooed on his back.

Incidentally, if
you have never tried Carib Lager, you are really missing something. Skip the Red
Stripe and Heineken -- have a Carib. In our opinion, it is the best beer in the
world! It is so good that, well, click here.

We call this
photo "Da Wahkah", which is our take on Walker's name in Caribbean
"patois". Nancy took this photo in June of '97.

The "dreads" happened by accident. After
years of cruising in sailboats, I finally managed to make the beginner's mistake - I got
the dinghy "painter" wound around the boat's propeller. (The painter is the rope
on the bow of the dinghy that you use to tie up the dinghy, or to tow the dinghy behind
you when you are under sail.) After snorkeling down and clearing the prop, we were left
with these remains of the painter, which happened to be stiff, kinky, black polypropylene
rope. We happened to have a roll of duct tape aboard and, voila! dreads! Whenever I wore
them ashore, people drove us nuts asking where they could get such a cool hat!

In my hand is a Pusser's
"painkiller" - the drink of the Virgin Islands. To make a painkiller:

4 parts pineapple juice

1 parts orange juice

1 part cream of coconut

Pusser's Rum to taste (about 2 to 4 parts)

Lightly sprinkle with freshly grated nutmeg

Serve over crushed ice. The freshly grated
nutmeg is essential. We use plastic gallon water jugs to make them, which works out to
about a bottle of rum, a BIG can (46 oz.) of pineapple juice, half of a large can of OJ,
and 1 large can of Coco-Lopez. This mixes up just under a gallon. You HAVE to try
this. Remember, though, there really is no substitute for Pusser's rum in a
painkiller. This, like other island drinks is properly served only in a disposable plastic
cup.

Warning! This painkiller is being
consumed by a trained professional. Do not try this at home!

Or, if
you are adventurous, you can try Walker's "Turbo Painkiller". This is one
hell of a drink: a martini that tastes like a painkiller. A turbo-painkiller.
Puts you on the beach in the BVI. If not, the second one damned sure does.

When I say "cold" ice, I
mean ice straight from the freezer, not from an ice bucket. Ice from the freezer is
typically around 0ºF (-18ºC), while ice that has been in a bucket is at 32ºF (0ºC).
That extra coldness is very important when making martinis.

If you are in a rush, you can chill the
glasses by filling them with ice and water and swirl to chill. Then empty the
glasses and quickly place them in your freezer while you mix the drink in the shaker. This
produces VERY cold glasses.

This island drink should NOT be served in a
disposable plastic cup!

Nancy
tending bar at Anegada's Cow Wreck Beach. Cow Wreck is our favorite place for limin'
in all of the BVI. It is literally the place at the end of the road that is on the
island at the end of the road, and the beach is rated as the prettiest in all of the BVI.

Cow Wreck Beach is owned and operated by the
Creque family. Bell Creque is one of the sweetest people on earth. She is also a
tremendous cook - her conch fritters are
the best in the Caribbean.

There is no better way to spend a day on
Anegada than just limin' at Cow Wreck.

Another of our
favorite places on Anegada is Neptune's Treasure, owned and operated by the Soares family.
Vernon Soares and his wife Julie settled in Anegada in 1967, first living ashore in a
tent. Over the years, they built Neptune's Treasure Hotel and Restaurant. Neptune's
Treasure has become the finest restaurant on Anegada. No visit to Anegada is complete
without a dinner at Neptune's, where you will have the best lobster or fresh fish in the
entire BVI.

At breakfast, Neptune's
omelet is better than can be described in words. What a way to start the day!

Staying with the Soares at Neptune's
Treasure is a joy, because they "adopt" you into their family. No one returns to
Neptune's as just a visitor.

The picture on the left is a rendering that
Walker made from a photograph.

Television, Anegada style.
Nancy found this television on the beach on Anegada's north shore. We dressed it up a bit,
making the "rabbit ear" antenna from an oil bottle, some sand and sticks. A nice
little coral nick-nack on top, and we are ready to watch television. It turns out that our
reflection is the only thing that we can receive on it.

Ahhh... but what a reflection!

Unlike the rest of the Virgin Islands,
which are mountainous, Anegada is a coral reef. The island
is completely surrounded by coral, and has been the site of hundreds of shipwrecks over
the years.

We have flown our own airplane to Anegada a few times. We took the photograph at the
right while flying around Anegada in June of 2005. The photograph, showing the
magnificent colors of Anegada's waters, is taken from just off of the west end of Anegada,
looking back east. Cow Wreck Beach is on the second point up on the left side, and Pomato
Point is the point at the far right side of the photograph. The pond in the center of the
island is the home of Anegada's flock of flamingos.

We have a large collection of aerial
photographs that we have taken of Anegada. Click here
to see them.

This is a panorama taken in June, 2003 at
Anegada's Pomato Point. Click on it for a large image of this beautiful place.

This is Nancy on the beach at The Big
Bamboo, which is at Loblolly Bay, on the north shore of Anegada. Behind her is one of the
many reefs at Anegada that provide excellent snorkeling.

The Big Bamboo, owned and operated by Aubrey Levin,
is also a great place for island food - especially conch and lobster.

To make Anegada "smoodies":

24 oz. (2 12 oz. cans) guava nectar

6 oz pineapple juice (a small can)

3 oz cream of coconut

Mix the above ingredients. Fill a cup with
ice, then pour about 1/2 to 2/3 full of your favorite rum -- preferably a dark rum. Fill
with the smoodie mix, then grate fresh nutmeg over the top. This, like other island drinks
is properly served only in a disposable plastic cup

This isn't Lowell's recipe, but it is the
best that I can do. At the ARH, they make the mix up by the gallon and keep the mix,
without the rum, in a gallon-size plastic pitcher in the bar ice box. To serve yourself,
simply fill a cup with ice, add however much rum you think it needs, and fill from the
magic pitcher.

This is
Walker, "back in the day", (1990 or so) taking his turn tending bar at Lowell Wheatley's Anegada Reef Hotel. Anegada must be one of the most relaxing places in the
Caribbean. Back then, the bar was a serve-yourself affair. There was normally no
bartender, other than yourself. When you did venture behind the bar, it was customary to
serve others seated there. Thus, you became the bartender of the moment. Lowell's drink
specialty was a smoothie, which is properly pronounced "smoodie'.

Tragically, Lowell died in an accident in 2002,
ending an era on Anegada.

Although the self-serve bar is a now relic
of the past, smoodies are still the specialty of the bar. The ARH is also rightfullay
famous for the barbecue lobster dinner at their nightly beach barbecue. The lobster is
cooked over wood gathered that day, and is very good.

If
you are looking for the best windsurfing location in the
BVI, Anegada is the place. The wind is very consistent and undisturbed, since there are no
mountains nearby. Setting Point and Pomato Point have excellent wind and side-shore
conditions. Near shore, the water is very flat, making for excellent speed sailing.
Further out, near the reef, there is very nicely shaped chop. While sailing off Setting
Point, Walker had a spotted eagle ray leap out of the water and literally fly across just
in front of the board -- a VERY rare and impressive sight.

Foxy's in Great Harbor on Jost Van Dyke in the BVI
serves a wonderful beach barbecue dinner (the best in the BVI), and there is always a
party afterwards. Here is Feliciano Callwood, better known as the one and only
"Foxy", being himself. If you are around in the middle of the afternoon, the old
sly fox himself is usually around to entertain the crowd with music and stories.

This
is our good friend Capt. Jimmy Hodge, a native of Tortola in the BVI. We met Jimmy back in
1990 at Anegada, and he has since come to Texas and stayed
with us for a couple of weeks on his annual trip to the States. Jimmy is definitely a
character!

Nancy and Jimmy
partying at Foxy's.

Here
is Nancy dancing with Baldwin, "The Dancing Machine" at Foxy's. Baldwin is
a regular at Foxy's. Besides being very entertaining, Baldwin is a very
nice fellow -- as are almost all of the BVI residents.

This
is Baldwin doing his trademark two-fisted, two-beer bottle limbo.

One
of our favorite spots is the sandy spit just off of Green Cay, near Jost Van Dyke.

We have several jars of sandy spit beach sand at home
to remind us of it. The sand is unusual in that it has many little flecks of red from the
nearby coral growth.

The
snorkeling at the spit is outstanding.

Nancy thought of
bringing along an air mattress one year. It turned out to be a floating bar. Ummm, is
there any rum in that cup?

Life just can't get much better than this.
An ice-cold bottle of Carib and your own palm tree at the Sandy Spit.

An
interesting spot in the BVI are the caves at the western end of Norman Island.
These are the very caves that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about in his book
"Treasure Island." There are moorings just off the caves so you can secure
your boat and enjoy some fantastic snorkeling. Be sure to take a submersible
flashlight with you and snorkel into the dark interior!

Many of the anchorages
have local vendors that come to your boat and offer pretty things for sale. This is
Pearlene, who had some nice jewelry to choose from.

Here's
a shot Nancy took of Walker getting ready to join her for a scuba dive.

And here's Nancy, searching the bottom of the
Caribbean forstuff! Several years ago, she found a $5.00 bill on the
bottom while we were diving at White Bay on Jost Van Dyke. We have kept it as sort of a
"lucky charm".

Another great place for drinks and food is the
Jolly Roger Inn in Soper's Hole, at the west end of Tortola. Their food is
excellent, and they make a wonderful Bushwacker.

To make a Bushwacker:

Bailey's Irish Cream

Amaretto

Kahlua

Vodka

Grand Marnier

Lots of ice

Freshly grated nutmeg

Fill blender 3/4 full with ice. Add a
small splash of vodka, and a small splash of Grand Marnier, a healthy serving of Kahlua,
and a slightly less healthy splash of amaretto. Fill with Bailey's until ice is almost
covered. Blend until smooth. Pour into hurricane glasses and grate fresh
nutmeg on top.

Yes, it does rain in the BVI. If you go
to sleep under an open hatch, you can count on a 2AM shower. We saw this rainbow one
evening at Jost Van Dyke's Great Harbor. It sure looks like that sailboat has found
the proverbial pot of gold!

This photo was discovered by the Nauti-Benders
Boater's Calendar publisher and wound up being the September 18, 2003 page!

How about this rainbow off
Anegada's Pomato Point!

In 2005, we
purchased "Shak-Shak", a two-bedroom apartment in the Long Bay Beach Resort on the
western end of the north shore of Tortola. Click here for
photos. Shak-Shak is a great place to base our land-based trips to the islands. Long
Bay is on the northwestern end of Tortola, which is peaceful and has the best beaches on
the island.

Smuggler's
Cove, just to the west of Long Bay, is our favorite Tortola beach.

Walker has created some graphic art from
photographs that we have taken in the BVI. Click here to see
some of it.

If you want to fish in the
BVI, then you need a fishing license to be legal. Fishing without a license can result in
serious consequences, including seizure of your boat. You can apply ahead of time by
printing and filling out the BVI Fishing License
application form that was provided by Glenn Ashmore. Click here for the application. Fill out the
application, and follow the instructions on the second page.